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3M Adds Temporary Wafer Bonding Application Lab in Taiwan

Center Provides Support for 3D Integrated Circuits and Ultra-Thin Wafer Handling for the Semiconductor Industry

St. Paul, Minn. – June 23, 2011 - 3M, a leading supplier of advanced materials to the semiconductor packaging industry, today announced the opening of the company's application laboratory in Yangmei, Taiwan, for 200mm and 300mm temporary wafer bonding. The 3M Semiconductor Innovation Center offers customers in Taiwan and throughout Asia access to 3M's Wafer Support System (WSS) materials and processes for temporary bonding for ultra-thin wafer handling applications for 3D integrated circuit (IC) packaging. Temporary bonding is crucial in the 3D packaging process to temporarily bond the wafers during manufacturing and then debond them without damage. 3M's sophisticated technology makes this possible. The addition expands 3M's existing wafer support applications laboratories in Japan and the United States to meet customer demand.

3M Taiwan's Semiconductor Innovation Center enables 3M to work closely with customers to meet their ongoing need for high-performance process solutions that support high-volume manufacturing with a competitive cost of ownership. The addition of the WSS capabilities enables customer evaluation and testing of 3M's WSS materials including 3M's Liquid UV-Curable Adhesives and Light-To-Heat Conversion (LTHC) coating.

"3M is committed to bringing innovation to our customers that help them fulfill the demanding 3D-IC packaging requirements for advanced semiconductors. Now 3M innovation is even more accessible," says Jeffrey Chen, division manager for 3M Electronics Markets Materials Division in Taiwan. "Our customers are among the most technologically advanced semiconductor manufacturers in the world, and this lab allows customers and 3M engineers to work together to address the requirements for leading-edge material solutions."

3D packages – with shrinking form factor, increasing power management demands and complex packaging schemes – pose many challenges that need to be addressed with advanced materials. Emerging 3D packages require the development of novel, enabling materials and processes to overcome many new technical barriers, including temporary bonding of ultrathin wafers for packaging high-performance silicon devices. 3M's temporary wafer bonding materials address these challenges. 3M's sophisticated UV curable adhesives offer fast cure cycle with a rigid bond that survives intense grinding and subsequent processing after the wafers are thinned. The 3M adhesive and glass system provides excellent support, enabling a much thinner wafer with better electrical and thermal properties. 3M™ LTHC Coating offers robust debonding of ultrathin wafers with less stress on wafers, reducing the risk for damage and improving yield.

The 3M Wafer Support System includes equipment and materials that allow temporary wafer bonding to support wafer thinning and subsequent processing of ultra-thin wafers for 3D packaging. 3M's innovative use of a UV curable adhesive for wafer bonding to glass carriers provides robust wafer support throughout wafer grinding and subsequent multiple high-temperature processing cycles. After processing, 3M's unique Light-To-Heat Conversion layer allows low-stress, room temperature debonding of the thinned wafer directly to a tape carrier. The thinned wafer is supported throughout the entire process thereby minimizing warpage, stress and process complexity. This improves process yield and reduces overall cost of ownership of the temporary wafer bonding and thinning process. As compared to other processes that expose the thinned wafer to high-temperature and stress or other processes that use solvents to release the thinned wafer, 3M's one-of-a-kind process and materials solutions enable high-volume manufacturing at multiple semiconductor sites worldwide today.

For more information about 3M Electronics Markets Materials Division, its products and services visit www.3M.com/wss.

About 3M
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $27 billion in sales, 3M employs about 80,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 65 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.